


Shared Trauma

by smugPoet



Series: Steve and Robin Takin Ass and Kickin Names (Tales of a Legendary Bromance) [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Best Friends, Exhaustion, Families of Choice, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Friendship, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-27 16:37:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20049184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smugPoet/pseuds/smugPoet
Summary: Steve and Robin were normal teenagers slinging ice cream in a mall, just trying to get some cash from a summer job. Or, at least Robin was. Steve had been through this bullshit before. Monsters, alternate dimensions, a fourteen year old girl with superpowers. He had already learned how to cope. This was all new to Robin, and she had no idea what to think.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> heyo im bAck. 
> 
> when i started this series i meant for it to be a collection of short stories with steve and rob just bein friends and doin teenage junk. however, there are so many possibilities for whump and angst that i have to write them when they come to mind
> 
> anyway there will be more fluff and garbage later on!! idk how many parts this series will have. tbh ill probably just keep going until i a) get bored which isnt likely, or b) i really truly do run out of ideas which also isnt likely. im saying this series doesnt die until i die

Steve and Robin held the door as long as they could. Just long enough for Dustin and Erica to get away. Then they gave out. The soldiers grabbed them, pulling them in opposite directions. Robin screamed Steve's name. She was later tossed to the floor in a small room. Steve was already there, lying on the floor. Her co-worker, no her friend, was sprawled on the concrete and Robin prayed to any god that might be listening that he was alive. She couldn't do this alone. His face was bloody and his eye was swollen, but he appeared to be breathing. She feigned confidence as she hissed at the soldiers. 

"What did you do to him?" It came out more like a scream. "Don't touch him," she growled when they got too close. 

Then they were hiding. The quick transition startled Robin as they were suddenly in Starcourt Mall, hiding behind a counter. The soldiers had guns now. Big guns that could shoot and kill with precision. She was going to die. These two kids they had with them, fourteen and ten, she herself at seventeen, the summer before her senior year of high school. Steve, at nineteen, looking for colleges. All four of them, their entire lives ahead of them. And they were going to die. And no one would ever know what happened to them. 

Robin gasped and jerked awake before being jostled to the right. 

"Holy shit, Rob," Steve said to the left of her. "Don't do that. You scared the hell outta me. I almost swerved off the road," he said laughing a little. Robin's eyes focused. She was in a passenger seat of a car. Steve's car. He was driving. She still felt a little dizzy. "Hey. Are... you okay?" Steve asked sparing a glance at her. 

"Um, yeah. Yeah I'm fine," she sighed. "Sorry, I'm just. Tired," she huffed. Steve sighed. She'd been tired a lot. He was wondering if she was actually sleeping at night. But it's not like Robin would just come out and tell Steve what was wrong. She seemed fine, aside from occasionally falling very quiet and it was odd how often she seemed to be falling asleep. He didn't know what to say to her. 

After the Russian device was destroyed and that monster, the Mind Flayer the others had called it, was dead and gone, Robin had been reluctant to go back to normal. It was probably a week before she was able to talk to Steve normally again. She hadn't thought there was anything wrong, and she just needed to sort through her thoughts on the events. And Steve had been more than willing to give her space. He was the most supportive person she'd had. 

But after that week of feeling numb and "just needing to think", she started feeling scared. She never really had nightmares as a kid. Sure she'd had surreal dreams that made her uncomfortable, but never had she had dreams like this. She would wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes screaming, sometimes nauseous, sometimes both. Many of the dreams were just memories of what had happened. Steve lying unconscious on the floor, a girl with a parasite in her leg, a large fleshy monster chasing their car. But sometimes her imagination stretched. The fears she'd had in the near-death moments came back vividly. She dreamt that the monster attacked her, that it reached their car and destroyed it, killing all of them. And the worst ones were where Steve died. Ones where Dustin and Erica didn't make it in time, or they'd been caught too. Where she saw the life drain out of Steve and the kids and she couldn't do anything but watch. 

"Are you sure? You look a little pale," he said taking his eyes of the road once again to look at her. "You're not gonna hurl on my dashboard, are you?" he asked, trying to make a light joke. Robin sighed. 

"Yeah, I'm fine," she repeated. She wasn't really fine. She actually was a little nauseous, but it would fade. And she was a little dazed too. That was the thing about these nightmares. She would doze off in the middle of the afternoon and wake up confused, not knowing where she was or how she'd gotten there. It'd been nearly a month of this bullshit. But she was fine. She just needed to get her head on straight. She would get there. Eventually.

"Are you sure, Robin? I can pull over for a minu-" 

"Steve, I said I was fine," she snapped, a little more aggressively than she'd intended to. "Please just drive. I have a headache," she sighed, her tone softening. Steve's expression softened as well, and he nodded silently, sparing one last glance at Robin before turning back to the road. She took the moment to assess the situation. She had to think about it. It was Wednesday, August 7th, the third day of the school year. Steve had picked her up from school so she wouldn't have to walk home or take the bus. She was alive and well, as was Steve. Things were back to normal, back to the mundane routine of Hawkins Indiana. She collected herself, taking a few more deep breaths. She was safe, Steve was safe, the kids were safe. They were just bad memories and bad dreams. She knew that's all they were, but they scared the hell out of her, despite knowing how irrational she was being. 

Steve pulled his car into the driveway in front of his house, putting it into park. He looked at Robin and was relieved to see the color returning to her face. He hadn't been lying before. Her face had been awfully drained and she looked sick. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her look that way, however. After the events on July fourth, she'd taken a little time to herself. When she came to, he noticed she would doze off frequently, sweat in her sleep, become pale and anxious at random. At first he thought she was coming down with something. But it continued. It was like she was afraid. She always seemed tired, like she wasn't sleeping at night. Her anxiety had been through the roof, and despite her constant reassurances that she was fine, he could see the way her hands would fidget and how her leg bounced. She seemed to be in constant motion, and that alone stressed Steve out. 

Robin was the calmest person he'd ever met. She was excitable yes, but she never really made a scene about anything and she could handle most stressful situations with alarming ease. He didn't want to think about it, but in the back of his mind were the thoughts about the fourth of July. Had Robin really been that afraid? Was she still afraid? He didn't know, because Robin refused to tell him. 

An hour into sitting around in Steve's kitchen, Robin put her head on the table and groaned loudly. Steve laughed. 

"Bored already?" He asked from where he stood at the counter across the room. 

"No. AP calc is just stupid," she whined. "I honestly don't even know how I got into this class." Steve just shrugged. 

"Rob, you're really smart," he said, looking at her. "There's a reason they put you in that class." 

"Not really. I suck at math. I'm like... people smart, if that makes sense. Things like language and history and I do well in, but I've always sucked ass in math," she sighed, pushing the papers across the table. Steve rolled his eyes and laughed.

Steve watched as Robin struggled with her school work. At first it was amusing to see her become irritated with it. He knew she was just stuck in her own head. She was more than smart enough to figure it out, but she was so caught up in the fact that she couldn't understand at first glance that it frustrated her. But then he started getting concerned when she turned anxious and snappy. She went from being the completely normal and a little snarky Robin from before, to being irritable and kind of mean. Steve didn't like it. Partially because he didn't really enjoy being snapped at for saying something harmless, but also because he knew it was because she was burning herself out.

She was pacing. Fucking pacing around the kitchen. Her breathing had quickened and her face became pale again. This wasn't normal. It truly was very unlike Robin to get so worked up over something like this. 

"Robin?" he asked gently. "Are you okay?" She mumbled an affirmation, but Steve didn't buy it. "Seriously. Are you okay?" He asked again, taking on an authoritative tone. She whipped around to face him, the sudden motion making her dizzy. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell, hitting her head on the tile floor. "Shit!" Steve yelled, stepping towards her. "Shit, shit." He shook her shoulder, but she didn't respond. Her breathing was still quick and shallow, and she was obviously unconscious. 

"Robin? Robin!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im baAckk
> 
> while i was away i got the opportunity to think about where i wanted this fic to go, but this chapter is a little shorter than the last though, so im sorry for that
> 
> im sorry for not updating for literally like two weeks oof

Steve knelt next to Robin's unconscious form on the floor of his kitchen. What was he supposed to do? He felt around her face and he patted her cheek to see if she would stir. She remained unresponsive and her skin was sticky with sweat. Should he call 911? She did hit her head pretty hard and he couldn't figure out why she'd fainted. Lack of food, lack of sleep or water, perhaps. Should he keep trying to wake her up or let her wake up on her own? He had no clue. 

He knelt there for probably forty-five seconds before he heard her groan. He looked down at her, and she began to blink her eyes open. 

"Holy shit, Rob," he sighed shakily. "Don't scare me like that." 

"What the hell happened?" she asked, sitting up. 

"Whoa, whoa, careful," he said, putting a hand on her chest to keep her from sitting up too quickly. "You passed out. You were freaking out over your homework and then you just fainted." Robin nodded as if remembering. "How do you feel?" Robin shrugged.

"I'm fine, Steve," she said, reaching up to comb a hand through her hair. Steve laughed nervously in response. Robin grabbed onto the tabletop and began pulling herself up, but didn't make it far before she became too dizzy and lost her grip. 

"Hey, stop, you'll faint again," he said grabbing onto her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Answer me honestly. How do you feel? And don't tell me you're fine, because if you were fine you wouldn't have fainted." Robin rolled her eyes. 

"I'm just tired," she said quietly. And she did look tired. She had circles under her eyes and her body looked like it would give in under any weight placed upon it. But Steve knew she was more than just tired. She was still sweaty and pale and he was just realizing now how sunken in her face looked, as if she hadn't been eating well. Steve bit his lip and shook his head. He couldn't pinpoint why, but Robin just didn't look well. 

"Are you sick or something?" he asked, reaching up to feel her forehead.

"No," she snapped, smacking his hand away. "I'm fine. Just a little stressed," she sighed dropping her face in between her knees. Steve looked her over. Her body looked extremely small curled up on the kitchen floor. 

"Stressed? About?" He prompted.

"I don't want to talk about it. I'm fine," she mumbled from between her knees. Steve huffed. Robin picked her head up and looked at him pleadingly. "Please trust me, Steve. I am fine." He looked her in the eyes. She looked like she was utterly exhausted and beaten up, but determined nonetheless. He sighed 

"Yeah, okay. I trust you," he said, lying through his teeth. Robin bit her lip and nodded. Steve grabbed her hand and gently pulled her up so she could sit in a chair. "Are you hungry?" he asked changing the topic. "I can't really cook much, but I know how to make mac and cheese from a box."

"Correction. You know how to read the instructions on the box," Robin replied, the corner of her lips turning up. Steve made a face at her and turned away.

After about twenty minutes of, much to Robin's surprise, relatively controlled cooking, there was a pot of mac and cheese ready on the counter. Steve scooped two generously sized bowls for them and brought them to the table. They'd decided to take a break from doing work for the time being and were just sitting and talking at the kitchen table. Robin still seemed off. While color had returned to her face, she was lacking her usual attitude, leaving Steve to do most of the talking. She just seemed to be tired and out of it. Steve thought that maybe it was just the first week of school taking a toll on her, but something else was definitely up. She wasn't eating either. She picked at the bowl as they talked, her leg bouncing under the table.

Eventually, Robin insisted that she go back to doing her homework. Steve reluctantly cleaned the kitchen and let her work. At one point they migrated to the living room and sat on the couch. Robin sat and stared at her work, her mind wandering to everything but the work in front of her. Her eyes hurt. Steve offered her coffee and she gratefully accepted it, looking for anything to keep her awake. It hardly worked.Without permission, her body began to feel heavier than it had been, and before she was aware of it, she was falling asleep. 

Steve looked at her, slumped on the arm of the couch. He went to stand up, but the movement startled her awake, and she accidentally smacked her coffee onto the couch and herself. 

"Shit!" She yelped, from being startled, as well as the coffee that was everywhere and burning her. Steve stared, his mind blanking. "Go get some towels, dingus!" She yelled, completely ignoring the fact that she was the one that spilled it on his carpet. Steve left and came running back with damp towels for both Robin and the couch. He handed on to her before frantically starting to dab at the cushions. 

"Fuck, fuck, my mom's gonna murder me..." he hissed as he tried to get the stain out. Robin pulled her eyes away from her own shirt to look at Steve.

"Shit, Steve, I'm so sorry," she said, guilt dripping from her words. 

"It's fine," Steve huffed, still working at the spill. Robin bit her lip.

"Let me help," she mumbled, kneeling on the floor next to Steve. Was he mad at her? She was pretty sure he was mad at her. She felt something catch in her throat and her eyes felt hot and watery. 

"I can handle a little spill," Steve laughed dryly, not pulling his eyes away. 

"Yeah, yeah, okay," she said, standing to head to the kitchen to finish cleaning herself up. 

About five minutes had passed before Steve walked back into the kitchen, a proud smile on his face. 

"I got most of the coffee out I thin- holy shit, Robin what"s wrong?" He asked rushing to where she sat at the kitchen table. She looked at him, her blue eyes bright with hot tears. 

"I... I don't know," she mumbled. "I don't feel right." Her voice shook dangerously. 

"What does that mean?" Steve asked, brushing hair out of her face with one hand and putting a strong grasp on her shoulder with the other. 

"I don't know. It's just wrong. I'm tired and the lights are too bright and I can't breathe, and Steve, I'm scared. I'm fucking scared."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and y'all thought chapter two was gonna be the end
> 
> lol you thought wrong
> 
> anyway sorry again for taking so long. after getting back from vacation i was really tired and was having troubke getting back into the groove of writing. But we're back now!!

**Author's Note:**

> guys i did research. i made sure that indiana schools started class in august bc im just that extra. and i used a calendar from 1985 to make sure wednesday august 7th was a real date =)
> 
> okay so. i will be on vacation (therefore away from my laptop) from saturday august third, to august tenth. i will be active here, so comments and such are definitely welcome, but i will not be writing anything until i get back home. there's a slight chance ill get bored and write in the car, but i doubt it because i hate writing on my phone.


End file.
